Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Overnight trains---any tips?

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Overnight trains---any tips?

I have to take a train from Vienna to Frankfurt or Cologne--does anyone have any tips, basic or advanced?

Travel specialty stores like Magellan's in California (they have an 800 #) sell various devices to secure your luggage to a rack or bin. One is a cable that goes through or around your suitcase handle and then can be attached to the luggage rack, secured by a combination lock and/or sound alarm. In general, not necessarily on your route, I have heard of thefts on overnight trains. Your most important valuables (money, tickets, passport,medications,etc) should not be in a stored suitcase but on or under your person while you sleep.

Mike, If you get a couchette do you have to lay down for the entire trip?

Be sure to bring a picnic dinner and/or breakfast and plenty of water to drink. There may or may not be a dining car and it may or may not have decent food. It will be very smoky. If you have time, "get ready for bed" in the train station bathroom by brushing your teeth and washing your face. Be prepared to possibly not get any sleep. I was once in a couchette with a crying 2 year old. Another time most of the people really smelled. That was the same time that we were on the end of the car. That is to say we were near the wheels, the connections to the next car, and the bathroom. It was not a pleasant ride. Overnight trains can be a nice time saver but they can also not be worth it.

Go first class, and take luggage that is compatible with the narrow isles that you'll find in a sleeper car.

and take a sleeping mask - on a previous post I bemoaned the fact that my compartment's window didn't have a curtain and I was besieged by blinding station and other lights the whole night.

tried to post this last night but fodor's site was *&%$ up again so i hope it works now. be sure not to pick the m iddle bunk in a couchette..you can't sit up at all and you may get on the traain at 6pm so find you have to lie flat even if not sleepy and the train ride is 12 hours long. some trains stop and start alot which is disturbing to sleep. also some cars get cut off trains and wait at sidetracks for hours for the connecting train to pick them up (european trains have cras attached thayt are going to different places then each other).

My advice i, if possible, AVOID THEM. I can never sleep. It is always noisy, bright lights, no water..ugh. If you must, all the previous advice is good and I would book a fairly deluxe place to recooperate from your train trip. I really hated the overnights I've taken..nothing like the way it looks in the movies.

When you book a first class private sleeper for two people, do you have a place to sit down before you decide to go to bed?

Yes. The wagon attendant will make [i.r. pull down] your beds when you want them. As for security on most Western European trains there is no problem. You normally give your passport and your ticket to the conductor and he takes care of border formalities for you. You get them back in the morning. For sleeping I would recommend first class. We took the night train from Paris to Budapest in a 1st class sleeper. It was a wonderful car - Austrian - but I didn't sleep very well and being in the lower bunk there is not much room for being restless :) The advice about keeping your money and tickets on you is good. I just wore my money belt to bed :)

One thing I couldn't understand is why the conductor takes ones passport on the sleeper trains for border formalities, but crossing borders during the daytime I was never asked to show my passport. Does anyone know why?

What is the main difference between first class and second class? I will be travelling with my husband from Munich to paris. Has anyone ever made this trip before?

Overnight trains are AWFUL - I'm not sure it is worth the money you save on a hotel. It is very, very smoky and the "bunks" are uncomfortable. It is a challenge to get any shut-eye

Can't non-smoking sleeper cars be reserved from the U.S.? This is the first place I have learned they take your passport and give it to you the next morning on the overnight trains? Is this for real, and doesn't anyone worry about their passport? What are the pillows like? Thanks - I'm traveling with 80-year old mother, so I'm a little concerned.

I recently copied you a note I have on disc about night trains in Europe. But I now think I might add direct replies on points in this correspondence. "from Vienna to Frankfurt or Cologne". If you can, carry on to Cologne. The train you're likely to use is the Donau Kurier, leaves Vienna West at 2045, and reaches Frankfurt at 0600, Koblenz at 0737, and Cologne at 0842. If you must arrive in Frankfurt, a way to get a full-length night is to carry on to Koblenz, cross the platform, and take a train back to Frankfurt, with breakfast on board. "I would make sure you reserve a couchette" The Donau Kurier has no couchettes, and one doesn't sleep well on its reclining seats. I'm afraid it's either a sleeper, at a fifty dollar supplement, or a couchette on the Donauwalzer, which leaves Vienna West at 1920 and reaches Cologne at 0600 and Aachen at 0726: again, you'd do well to sleep the night through, then double back to your destination. "with a crying 2 year old. Another time most of the people really smelled." SDince 1991 I've used about eight night trains a year on the continent, and have not in ten years met either of these hazards. "Go first class". I don't know why: jolly expensive, about fifty percent above second class. "my compartment's window didn't have a curtain and I was besieged by blinding station and other lights the whole night." Yes: this can happen in couchettes. But sleepers have blinds, which cut out station lights altogether. "a cablelock is a good idea" I've never used one, except to lock my bike to lamposts. The restaurant car " will be very smoky". Not in my experience. A little smoky, yes. But I've never been ujnable to find a tasble far from smoke. "some cars get cut off trains and wait at sidetracks for hours " . I disagree, and find no such car in the Thomas Cook European Timetable. An hour, in some cases, yes, but "hours" ? Could you very helpfully tell us which train ? "I can never sleep.". Perfectly true: some people can't. Others can. "It is always noisy" not in my experience "bright lights": well, there's a switch, "no water": there's a free bottle of drinking water for each sleeper passsenger, and conductors in sleepers and couchettes sell bottled water. I once used a Bulgarian sleeper that had no water to wash with -- but then it cost me ten dollars. I have never had a waterless washbasin otherwise. "Overnight trains are AWFUL - I'm not sure it is worth the money you save on a hotel. and the "bunks" are uncomfortable. It is a challenge to get any shut-eye " As I say, experiences vary. Certainly, if you're sure you won't sleep you won't. "It is very, very smoky ". What is ? Smoking is not allowed in any sleeper or couchette. It's true that people may smoke in the corridor, but if you ask them to go away they do so. "One thing I couldn't understand is why the conductor takes ones passport on the sleeper trains for border formalities, but crossing borders during the daytime I was never asked to show my passport. Does anyone know why?". Sorry, no. Perhaps their problem is that in theory the Schengen states can still mount spot checks, one night only, and ask to see passports. I'm not sure this idea washes, either, since there are now trips, such as Belgium to Germany, on which night travellers hold on to their passports. "Can't non-smoking sleeper cars be reserved from the U.S.? " Not specifically, since they are all non-smoking "This is the first place I have learned they take your passport and give it to you the next morning on the overnight trains? Is this for real, and doesn't anyone worry about their passport?" Yes: those people worry about their passport who like to worry about safety, water, lights, noise, and so on. "What are the pillows like?" Comfortable, in crisp linen. "I'm traveling with 80-year old mother, so I'm a little concerned." I'm afraid that you simply don't know, until you try it, whether the lady will sleep well or no. I'm sorry I write in a way so out of sympathy with much that has been said. Every contributor to these notes truly believes what he or she is saying. It's just that I don't agree. Please write if I can help further. But please write soon: on Easter Sunday I take the sleeper again from Amsterdam to Berlin. Ben Haines, London

Ben- I want to thank you for all the time you spend answering questions on this and other forums. You are very generous with your knowledge. Your answers are thorough, specific and have helped many of us. But. I have sensed in your posts from time to time [as well as in a private mail to me] a judgment that those of us who make different travel choices than you are.. well... wrong in some important way. One of the things I like about this forum is that inexperienced travelers can get help without being blamed for their inexperience. Some of us take 1st class trains because we are inexperienced and perhaps apprehensive. Others take first class as a choice. In my case I have taken both 1st and 2nd class, but on our overnight from Paris to Budapest my husband and I chose a 1st class sleeper because we wanted privacy. I am sure you would consider that money poorly spent. But it was our choice. I am an experienced traveler [more so after my recent exit from Skopje!] and I take certain precautions. Not because I am afraid, but because if I do then I don't have to worry. I also am bothered by your insouciant attitude concerning being parted from your passport. Even with a photocopy and replacement photos on hand replacing one takes a bite out of your vacation. We also all have different tolerances for smoke, crying children etc... that doesn't make us good or bad. It just makes us different. And I will refer to the Bertrand Russell story about the chicken who was fed by the farmer 499 days, came out on the 500th expecting to be fed and got his head cut off. That's the problem with induction. Perhaps you have been fortunate. Perhaps your tolerances are different that some of the rest of us. That's okay. Just don't judge the rest of us who make our own choices that may be different from yours.

Well Ben, I had thought I had paid for and was in a sleeper. It's what I'd asked for and paid for Venice-Vienna. (I'm the one that complained of the light). It cost an extra $90 for it ... each!